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The Effect of Temporary Co-location on Knowledge Flows: Evidence from NIH Study Sections

Wei Yang Tham   @wytham88   weiyang.tham@gmail.com   wytham.rbind.io   github.com/weiyangtham

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Introduction

Research Question

  • Do short-term interactions facilitate knowledge flows?

Motivation

  • Face-to-face interactions through transitory meetings (e.g. conferences) are believed to be important for knowledge exchange and diffusion

  • Empirical challenges: Co-location is often endogenous

Contribution

  • Estimate effect of temporary co-location with plausibly exogenous variation
  • Able to study long-run outcomes

Persistent increase in citations between scientist-pairs

Data and Methods

Setting: NIH Study Sections

  • Panels of scientists convened to review grant applications
  • Reviewers serve 4-year terms, attending three meetings a year

Data

  • Study section meeting rosters
  • Author-ity: disambiguated authors in biomedical literature
  • Web of Science: citations

Research Design

  • Treatment: Scientist-pairs that served on the same study section at the same time
  • Control: Scientist-pairs that served on the same study section but never at the same time